Roman or hobble shade

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides for an improved guide to be used in assembly of various types of window treatments, including roman and hobble shades. In particular, the invention provides for a slotted arcuate guide, a shade including such a guide, and assembly of a shade using such a guide. The improvement in the guide results in faster assembly. Each arcuate guide is slotted to permit the vertical cord or a loop to be fed through it after the remainder of the shade is assembled.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/744,610 filed Apr. 11, 2006 and incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of Invention

The present invention pertains to window treatments and more particularly to an improved roman or hobble shade. The shade is formed of a panel mounted on a plurality of horizontal rods. The rods are provided with slotted cord guides and at least one cord is threaded through the guides and used to control the movement of the rods as the shade is selectively raised or lowered.

B. Description of the Prior Art

Roman and hobble shades are commonly used for covering windows and doors. Each shade is comprised of a panel made of a soft, pliable material which is mounted to a plurality of horizontal rods attached at a predetermined spacing to the material, and a lifting mechanism including vertical cords used for suspending the material. These elements are arranged so that when the material and rods are pulled up by the cords, portions of the panel between the rods fold up to form an esthetically pleasing layered look and may allow light to shine into a room. The panel can also be extended flat to decoratively cover or shade a surface or to block light from shining into a room. When extended fully downward, some hobble shades do not sit fully flat but rather form pleats even in the downward position.

Guides, which may be attached to the rods, are used to guide the vertical cords. In some cases, the vertical cord is fed through the guides whereas in other cases, the cord is attached to a plurality of loops which themselves are fed through the guides. Assembly of such shades can be time consuming because they generally require advanced feeding of the cords or loops through the guides before the guides are attached to the rods and lifting mechanism. Therefore, an improved roman or hobble shade which improves the time for assembly is required.

A roman shade with a very complex structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,124,801.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for an improved guide to be used in the assembly of window treatments, including roman and hobble shades. In particular, the invention provides for slotted arcuately shaped guides, a shade including such a guide, and assembly of a shade using such a guide. The shade panel itself is comprised of a substantially flat piece of soft, pliable material which is mounted to a plurality of horizontal rods attached to the panel at a predetermined spacing, and a lifting mechanism including vertical cords used for suspending the panel. These elements are arranged so that when the panel and rods are pulled up by the cords, portions of the panel between the rods fold up to form an esthetically pleasing layered look.

The improvement in the guide results in faster assembly. Each arcuately shaped guide is slotted to permit the vertical cord or a loop to be fed through it after much or all of the remainder of the shade is assembled.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows a back elevational view of an existing roman shade;

FIG. 1B shows details of how the panel of the shade of FIG. 1A is connected to the rods;

FIG. 1C shows a plan view of a typical cord guide attached to the rods of the shade of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of an improved cord guide constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 3 shows an elevational view of a cord for a “hobbled” type window shade used in conjunction with the cord guide of FIG. 2 to lift a shade;

FIG. 4 shows an elevational view of the cord of FIG. 3 engaging the cord guide of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 shows a partial elevational view of a shade using the improved cord guide of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A typical roman shade 10, as shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C, includes a panel 12 made of soft, pliable material. Typically the panel 12 is made of one or more plies of a woven fabric or other materials. The bottom edge 14 of the panel is captured by a rod 16. In addition, several other rods 18 are provided at intermediate points along the panel and are attached thereto using, for example, a mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,096 incorporated herein by reference.

The shade 10 is hung so that the rods 16, 18 are oriented horizontally. The shade 10 is further provided with a plurality of cords, such as cord 20. A cord is provided at each of the lateral edges of the panel 12. Intermediate cores may also be provided, if necessary. One end of each cord is attached to an end or bottom post 22. The cord 20 passes through cord guides 24 attached to the rods 18 as shown in FIG. 1A.

The cord guides generally have a D-shape and are also referred to as D-rings. A typical cord guide 24 is shown in FIG. 1C. It includes a generally straight base 26 that is attached to the rod 18 and an arcuate body 28.

When the shade 10 is lowered, it extends across a respective window or door opening. The panel can be sized and shaped so that it is generally flat along the whole window. Alternatively, the panel can be oversized with respect to the height of the window so that the panel forms a pocket P, as shown in FIG. 1A.

A problem with the existing roman shades is that during assembly the cord 20 has to be threaded by hand through the cord guides 24. This is a very slow process and renders the fabrication of a roman shade 10 very labor intensive.

In order to solve this problem, in the present invention a roman shade is provided with a modified cord guide 30. This cord guide 30 shown in detail in FIG. 2 also has a base 32 and an arcuate body 34. The base 32 includes a means for attachment to a rod 18, such as by screw, tongue in groove sliding onto the rod, or other commonly known means for assuring that the base 32 and rod 18 remain generally immobile to each other. However, the arcuate body is made with a slot or channel 36. This slot 36 may be straight, but it may alternatively be formed either radially or at any angle desired. In the preferred embodiment, the slot has a curved or other convoluted shape. In FIG. 2, the slot 36 is S-shaped. The width of the slot 36 is approximately equal to the diameter of cord 20; however, the guide 30 can be made from a material that is sufficiently flexible to be stretched and to allow the cord to enter and then return to its original shape. Alternatively, the cord 20 can be made of a compressible material.

In the preferred embodiment, a roman shade can be made in accordance with this invention by attaching one end of cord 20 to the post 22, attaching the other end of the cord to a lifting mechanism (not shown), and then inserting the intermediate portion of the cord into the cord guides 30 through slots 36, as shown in FIG. 5. Alternative, the cord 20 can be inserted into the guide 30 before one or both of its ends are attached. However, because the cord can be inserted into the guide without threading its end therethrough, the resulting shade can be assembled much faster.

The slot 36 can have a uniform thickness, or as shown in FIG. 2, the slot may be wider near its exterior end 36A to ease entry of the cord.

The roman shade is opened by pulling the cords up thereby raising the bottom rod 16. This motion causes the rods 18 to stack on top of rod 16 and the panel portions between the rods 18 bunch up and fold over each other.

The roman shade described so far can have at most one major pocket on the bottom because as the shade is lowered, the rods 18 slide along the cord 20 and drag the panel along. Another type of shade referred to herein as a hobbled type shade in which the loops are sewn or otherwise secured at regular intervals along the cords and the loops are then attached at regular intervals along the panel. One such cord 38 is illustrated in FIG. 3 with straight portions 40 and loops 42. Generally the length of the straight portions is the same. The panel portions between loops have a width (or height) larger than the corresponding cord length between the loops, and, as a result, when the shade is lowered, the panel portions along the whole length of the shade fold into natural pockets and provide an esthetically pleasing look. However, until now a hobble-type shade could not be made effectively using the rods 18 and guides 24 because the loops 42 would have to be sewn individually after they pass around each guide 20.

Another embodiment of the present invention is applicable to either kind of shade. For the hobble-type shade, the cord 38 is first made with any desired length and loop spacing. Each loop 42 is then pushed through the slot or channel 36 of one of the guides 30 as shown in FIG. 4. Then, when the shade with this structure is lowered, the panel portion at the end of each straight portion 40 stops and forms a panel pocket.

While the invention has been described with reference to several particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention. Accordingly, the embodiment described in particular should be considered exemplary, not limiting, with respect to the following claims. 

1. A window covering comprising: a flexible panel having a bottom; a plurality of rods affixed in parallel to said flexible panel; a cord having one end secured to said bottom and arranged for selectively raising and lowering said panel; and a plurality of cord guides, each cord guide being attached to one of said rods and, each cord guide having the shape of a closed loop with a slot for receiving said cord.
 2. The window covering of claim 1 wherein said cord has a thickness and said slot has a width that is approximately equal to said width.
 3. The window covering of claim 1 wherein said cord has a thickness, one of said cord guide and said cord is made of a flexible material and said slot has width smaller than said thickness.
 4. The window covering of claim 1 wherein said cord has a thickness, and said slot has a first portion having a width smaller then said thickness and a second portion that is wider then said first portion to receive said cord.
 5. The window covering of claim 1 wherein said slot has a convoluted shape.
 6. A window covering comprising: a flexible panel; a plurality of rigid supports attached in parallel to said panel; a lifting cord arranged to selectively raise and lower the panel; and a plurality of cord guides attached to said rigid supports and arranged to guide said cord along said panel to effectuate said raising and lowering, each cord guide consisting of a closed loop with a slot receiving said cord.
 7. The window covering of claim 6 wherein said cord guides include a curved member with the slot formed through said curved member.
 8. The window covering of claim 6 wherein each cord guide is D-shaped.
 9. The window covering of claim 6 wherein said cord guides are made of a rigid material.
 10. The window covering of claim 6 wherein said cord guides are flexible and said slots having a width smaller then a thickness of said cord.
 11. The window covering of claim 6 wherein said cord extends through said cord guides without any knots.
 12. The window treatment of claim 6 wherein said cord is formed with closed cord loops between said cord guides.
 13. A roman shade comprising: a panel; A plurality of parallel rods attached to said panel at predetermined spacings; a lifting mechanism including a plurality of vertical cords; and a plurality of guides attached to said rods, each having an arcuate shape defining an opening and a slot extending outwardly from said opening, said slot being sized and shaped to receive one of said vertical cords into said opening.
 14. A method for assembling a shade, comprising: attaching a plurality of parallel rods to a panel at predetermined spacings; attaching a plurality of guides to said rods, each said guide being formed with an opening and a slot extending through said guide from said opening; attaching at least one vertical cord to an end of said panel; and passing said cord laterally through said slots into said openings, said cord being constructed and arranged for selectively raising and lowering said panel.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein said cord extends between said guides without knots.
 16. The method of claim 14 further comprising providing said cord with closed loops between said guides. 